My name is Ben Burress. In flight I operate the telescope tracking system to achieve
precision pointing of the telescope at selected IR objects.
I have been interested in astronomy for as long as I can remember; I have always loved
looking at pictures of planets, stars, nebulae, and the like, even artists renditions of
these faraway places. I always loved to imagine myself walking about on a distant, alien
world, and thinking about what I might find. I read all that I could find, memorizing
planet names, sizes, orbital distances; star sizes, spectral classes/colors; galaxy
distances and sizes-- the whole works. As I was growing up, I was always very lazy about
learning mathematics, and it is very true that strong math skills are essential to
someone working in this field. I had to force myself to "get interested" in math when I
reached college, but more diligence at mastering math when I was younger would have
helped me out greatly. Not surprisingly, I have veered toward the more artistic side of
astronomy: painting astro-pictures in high school, writing science fiction stories, etc.
To be a modern astronomer, one must master not only mathematics and astronomy, but
physics, electronics, computers, and physical instrumentation.
My parents always encouraged me to learn, and I can't imagine that theirs wasn't the
strongest influence in directing me toward science. With that said, I recall one person
who really got me going on astronomy. At age twelve I spent a few weeks at a summer camp
in the Sierras, and one of the counselors, a man from Eastern Europe, directed an
astronomy workshop that I attended. He really didn't teach any astronomy, but the
activity involved selecting an astronomical picture from a set of old calendars, cutting
it out, and framing it with a colored poster board frame. Somehow this simple workshop
sparked me, and I immediately began seeking other space art and photographs, in
calendars, magazines, etc. I convinced my dad--an oil paint artist by hobby--to paint me
a series of pictures of the planets of our solar system, modeling them after pictures
that I selected. I also started my subscription to Astronomy magazine immediately after
this, and shortly thereafter managed to finagle my parents to buy me a small telescope. I
was hooked, and the theme burned on all the way through college--and to this day, it
seems. That counselor, Leland, didn't start my interest, but through that simple workshop
he did seem to polarize it, as if firing the gun that started the race which I had been
preparing for long before.
I haven't considered what I am doing now as a career, actually; more a very
interesting job opportunity. My intention has always been to move on one day to the field
that I am most interested in, which is writing (technical writing, fiction writing).
However, my academic career was somewhat directed toward astronomy. I earned a bachelor's
degree in Physics, with an Astronomy minor, with the vague intentions either to move
through grad school or find a job in the field directly out of undergraduate school. The
latter occurred. In fact, back when I was looking for a job, I was actually looking about
more broadly than astronomy, at other scientific fields. This job came at me literally
out of the blue: I was sitting on the lawn at the Sonoma State Student Union when
suddenly my physics advisor appeared above me, back dropped by the blue sky, bearing news
of an opening for a tracker operator on the KAO. Two months later I was flying to New
Zealand for training....
I love going to New Zealand--even Hawaii is okay. I have also been fortunate enough to
fly with the KAO to Punta Arenas, Chile; Brasilia, Brasil; and Easter Island (as a fuel
stop). While travel, by far, is the best part of the job, there is a down side. The
hours. Flying from 10:00 pm until dawn forty or fifty times per year is very tiring.
My primary responsibility is similar to a ground-based observatory's "Night Assistant",
with some exceptions. On the ground I work with the Investigators to prepare in flight
observing plans, obtaining from them the astronomical positions of the infrared sources
they want to observe. Since most of the infrared objects the astronomers observe are
invisible in the optical portion of the spectrum, I must apply the IR positions to my
charts of visible object positions (mostly stars) so that, in flight, I may point the
telescope at the IR positions using the offset visible stars.
And although a job working in the field of astronomy is great, the fact is, my primary
interest in life is writing. I've been interested in fiction writing (mostly science
fiction and fantasy) about as long as I've been actively interested in astronomy, and I
can plainly say that it is the greater of my interests. I don't have anything published
yet, but have made a recent submission, hoping some publisher will like the book as much
as my wife does. Let me put it this way: unlike any of my other interests, I can put in a
great deal of work and effort in my writing and enjoy every minute as if it were play.
That says something, I think. Other hobbies include hiking, camping, and running.
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